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Friday, 15 November 2013

I’m apologising in advanced here: I have recently decided
to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), despite the fact
that it is already halfway through the month. This means I have to write about
3,000 words a day if I want to complete it on time. This also means that my
very minimal free time that I had before will now be gone until the end of the
month. This includes my blog. There is a huge chance that I will not be able to
get reviews up for the next couple of weeks so, to my very few and very amazing
readers, I am sorry. But I will complete
NaNoWriMo this year! (heh, as if that will actually happen…)

Anyhoo, this week I read yet another John Green book. I
have to say, I’m getting addicted. This one was Paper Towns, a book that personally is currently one of my
favourites. In a very short summary, this book is about a girl named Margo who
disappears after the narrator Quentin spends a night running around the town
with her doing crazy stuff. Quentin becomes obsessed with trying to find her
and follows a bunch of clues, trying to piece together the story. It was very
fast paced, not at all boring, and the ending was probably one of his more
satisfying ones.

First off, I have to say that the age group for this book
is slightly more mature, I can say that about most John Green books, but this
one in particular sounds most like an average teenager. And by that, I mean
that there is cussing and explicit mentions (or joking from the character’s
perspectives) of sex. So if you’re a teenager, I’d say great! Go on and read!
But if you’re one of the more sensitive types, you might want to avoid the
book.

That being said, I feel like this is one of Green’s most
realistic teenage-perspective books. They character’s aren’t over or under
done, and to be honest, I found the characters saying things my friends or I
would probably say. There were also a few references to things that made me
flail around happily at the fact that I understood the reference (such as to
Harry Potter, which was, in fact, mentioned). I could relate to bits of this
book on a level that I normally can’t with most books, so I have to say I was
quite impressed.

The point of this book was for there to be character development
– specifically for the character Margo. So much of the plot was based off of
that, and John Green did a very good job. It was a risky thing to do in a book,
basing a plot fully on how much you learn about a character, but he implicated
perfectly.

Overall, I’d give Paper Towns a five out of five. It
easily made my top five books, probably above his Fault in Our Stars. The book was very well written, well thought
out (unlike this review), and well detailed. I honestly don’t think that there
was anything I didn’t like about it. I would recommend to anyone who wants to
read a very teenager-ish, mystery-ish bo

Friday, 8 November 2013

After waiting weeks, I finally managed to get James
Dashner’s new book. I was really excited to get it. I enjoyed The Maze Runner and I was hoping that
this book would be just as good.

It was better.

The Eye of Minds
by James Dashner is the first book in the new series The Mortality Doctrine.
The second book is planned to be released in autumn of next year (Pulling a
Rick Riordan, are you Mr. Dashner?). The book takes place in a sort-of
futuristic setting where people are spending more time in the virtual work,
VirtNet, instead of the real world. It’s one of those books that takes place mostly
in a digital world where there is somebody hacking the system of harming
people. I have seen this before, at least twice (though I can’t remember the
first time I saw this per say), the second being in the Pendragon book The Reality Bug). But even though I have
seen this type of setting, this book felt different to read.

Well, the book started off fairly regular. Somebody
spending time in the VirtNet, except something weird happens. It’s the type of
formula that has been seen before multiple times in multiple books. The book seemed
fairly average until about halfway through, when things started to get good. I can’t say what happened because
of spoilers, but things got dark and crazy and the book ended with a twist that
had me wishing autumn 2014 would come a lot sooner.

Honestly, I just need to talk about the setting of this
book. I feel like that is a huge part about what made this book what it was. It
was brilliantly done, what with the line between what was fiction and reality.
That line being a very, very thin line at times. The way that Dashner talked
about the VirtNet made it feel like it could almost be real – like I could go
to the corner of the room and there would be my “coffin” (a sort of
container-type thing where a person laid while they accessed the VirtNet) waiting
for me. And while sometimes the virtual world felt realistic, other times it
was written to be very clearly digital. It was brilliantly done, and the book
itself kept you, as the reader, guessing as to what was going on.

It wasn't very difficult book to read. Between books that
I've been reading for school and some books I've been reading for fun that were
a little more on the complex side, this book was an enormous relief for my
mind. No, the plot was not obvious nor was it not complex, but there were no
crazy symbolisms and there was no fancy language that was akin to Shakespeare. I
managed to finish in only a few hours, which is something I haven’t been able
to do with a book for a long while. And it was interesting enough to keep my undivided
attention for said hours.

Overall, I’d give this book a four out of five. It was
very well written, very interesting, and overall just a good read. I’d
recommend this book to people who want a break from extreme fantasy or crazy
sci-fi. This book is a bit of a cross between those genres, while keeping a
very realistic element to it. Like I mentioned before, it isn't a very difficult
book to read, but I wouldn't recommend giving it to someone under the age of
12. There are some dark elements that had even me slinking under my blankets
once I turned out the lights.

Friday, 1 November 2013

It’s really quite amazing how a book can change ones view
of the world and, more often than not, make them feel pretty damn
insignificant. This is how I felt after reading the infamous The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

I don’t like most books about cancer. A lot of the time,
they’re unrealistic or about those few who did something really brilliant.
TFIOS was different. This book is about a teenager named Hazel who, if you
couldn't guess, has cancer. The book basically sums up the hell that she has to
go through because of cancer – including her love life. I don’t often cry for
books, but by the end of this one, I was brought almost to tears (the reason I
probably didn't cry was because I was too emotionally tired from starting the
book a few hours prior and reading it all over a short amount of time).

Besides the realistic-ness of the book, symbolism plays a
huge part in the book as well. Not symbolism like in The Great Gatsby where the reader has to find out about it
themselves, but symbolism that is very clearly put in almost bold letters I am a symbol. It adds both a bit of
deeper meaning to the text as well as give the bluntness of the average
teenager. Especially a dying one. There’s also a lot of emotion behind these
symbols. The word “okay” holds more meaning than the word “always” means to
Potterheads, which is saying quite a bit.

I know that I say this about almost every book I've
reviewed on here, but this book had
dynamic characters. Hazel grew emotionally stronger and her view of the
world did change, Augustus… Well, let’s actually not talk about him right now.
I honestly didn't think there be so much development in a book about cancer, I’m
not quite sure why, but this book completely changed that. Especially because
she [Hazel] didn't act like the stereotypical cancer kid.

The writing style of this book was very John Green. It
was sarcastic, joking, and made references to a book that to my knowledge doesn't
actually exist throughout the book. Despite not being a teenager, he has definitely
succeeded in sounding like one, where many authors have failed (yes, I am
looking at some popular YA authors). At times, it seems to be a little
overdone, but it only adds to the lighter tones of the book. But as a general
rule, the narrator acting like a teenager really helps to connect to the
readers. I can see why so many people like the book.

Overall, I’d give the book a five out of five. This book
easily made it into my top five favourite books (place number one still goes to
Anthony Horowitz’s Oblivion). It’s
deep, funny, light-hearted, depressing, and everything in between. It plays
with your emotions so much throughout the book. You, as the reader, actually
almost feel like you’re in the book. I would recommend this book to everyone. I
repeat; everyone. It is a book that, within the time that I spent reading it,
completely changed my view on the world. There isn't one person who shouldn't
read this book, no matter the age.

Friday, 25 October 2013

I apologise for not being able to post last week! On the
night before I was planning on uploading, I had a giant essay to write that was
due for IB English the next day. But I’m back again, and somewhat alive!

Dystopian books are starting to reach the
level of being overdone and are a far too popular topic to write about. I,
personally, am also not a fan of the genre. So when I went to pick up Unwind by Neal Shusterman at my friend’s
request, I put it at the bottom of my “to read” pile. Once I finally got my bum
around to reading it, I realised two things: The first being that this was an
amazing book, the second being that I should really stop doubting my friend’s
choice in books.

What stood out to me the most about this book is that it
actually had a plot that I had never, ever, ever seen before. This is a very rare thing, and because of that, I
was extremely shocked. This book is about a society where unwanted children,
instead of being sent to jail or grounded or whatnot, were “unwound”. This “unwinding”
consisted of taking the limbs and organs of the person (under the age of 18)
and using those pieces to replace a limb or an organ of someone who needed it.
This way, they got rid of the unwanted child without fully killing them and they saved lives. The book follows the
perspective of three children who were sent to be unwound who managed to escape
(or in one character’s case – was somewhat kidnapped) and were on the run.

This book has a very chilling effect on the read. The
most shocking thing about this book is that it is so well written that it
actually seems like it could be happening right now. Everything else in society
is fairly normal like it is now, with the exception of unwinding and a few
other minor details. Shusterman does an excellent job at portraying this
concept without creating an entirely differently world in the process (cough–Gone–cough). It was a very shocking read
and, to some extent, did change my perspective on the world once I had finished
it.

The main characters, the narrators, also are very
dynamic. The trouble with some books in this genre is that sometimes the
authors put too much thought into creating this crazy, perfectly imperfect,
dystopian society that they forget to write more about how a character changes.
This book managed to capture this perfectly. And the fact that it changes
perspectives from three different characters gives the reader a much broader
understanding of different classes and groups during this time as well so there
was nothing lost on the development of the setting and culture either.

On the downside, I did feel like this book did drag on
just a bit in times. Yes, yes, it is difficult to find a book that doesn’t do
this, but this was one of those books that couldn’t hold my attention enough to
finish it in a couple of days given the time. There were some scenes that
seemed to stretch on forever, and though that could have been intentional by
the author to show how the characters were feeling about a situation, I personally
just found myself shoving a bookmark in and moving to another book in the hopes
that would keep my attention.

Overall, keeping personal opinions to the side about the
genre, I would give this book a 3. Every detail of this society was well
executed, and the characters were very well developed, but it did drag on quite
a bit at times and there were some parts where I was questioning the sanity of
the author. Unwind was a book that
changed my perspective on life around me, and I would recommend this book
especially if you are looking for a dystopian book that doesn’t exactly follow
the formula.

Friday, 11 October 2013

The Heroes of Olympus has been a hot mess full of underdeveloped characters, Mary Sues, and a general disconnect from the original Percy Jackson series up through The Mark of Athena.

And then the House of Hades came.

When I
first picked up this book, I was very apprehensive. Of course I wanted to know
what happened to Percy and Annabeth after that terrible, and literal, cliff
hanger at the end oftheMarkofAthena, but I didn't expect
Riordan to be so good at writing dark. This book is possibly one of the darkest
books he was written. From the description of Tartarus that originates from
both classic myth and his own imagination to the descriptions of some of the
gods, the book was very well written. Anthony Horowitz still takes the cake for
being one of the best dark YA authors, but Riordan holds much potential.

Can we
talk about the cover for a moment? It is just so perfect! As mad as it may sound, the US cover perfectly fits the
book. It is dark, symbolistic, and actually partially portrays a scene from the
book (unlike the UK covers – sorry, but those still scare me). It is a
near-perfect portrayal of Percy and Annabeth in this book. John Rocco, this is
a shout out to you being an amazing cover artist for the books since The Lightning Thief!

Up to this point in the series, there was a certain
disconnect from the original books. This book completely patched that over;
references to the Second Titan War, old characters appearing, and our good ol'
Annabeth actually acting like herself again. For once, I felt as though I was
reading a continuation of PJO instead of a [poorly] written fanfiction. Old
characters also popped up in this book. Remember Rachel? Grover? And if you've
read The Demigod Files and The Demigod Diaries, be prepared to see
some references to some of the stories in there.

Andthecharacterisation.Of
my gods, this book did an amazing job at it. Ever wonder about some of Nico's
past? This book connects the dots and even sneaks in a little detail in about
him where, unless you've come across a spoiler before reading the book, you
will have not seen coming. Flat characters are turned into round, dynamic
characters and, overall, this book fixes most of the mistakes from the prior
books.

Now let's discuss the plot. It moved along quickly - almost
too quickly than what I would have liked. 600 pages went by way too quickly,
and although I like a fast book, this one went a little too fast. Individual scenes weren't generally very descriptive, and
were done in a choppy manner through the switching of perspectives between
scenes. The chapters were also almost to Maximum
Rider length, the shortest being only two or three pages long. The story itself
was entertaining, but it could have gone into a bit more detail.

Uncle
Rick has also surprised us in a way other than a troll-worthy cliffhanger. As
some of you may or may not be aware, Riordan had a reputation for being a bit
of a homophobe. It seemed, in prior books, that he purposely avoided any and
all myths that involved any sort of gay characters. This book changed this. I
won’t say who, but besides there being a blatant mention through a myth, there
is also a gay character. And it is seamlessly written into the story – not at
all forced like I would have assumed.

Overall,
I would give this book a 4 out of 5. It is the best book in the Heroes of
Olympus by far, and though there are a few mistakes (and misquotations), it was
overall well done and well thought out. I was definitely not expecting this
high quality of work and I will be expecting something even better for the last
book, The Blood of Olympus, planned
to be released Autumn of 2014.

Friday, 4 October 2013

I was
really excited to read this book when it was lent to me by one of my friends. I
have been hearing a lot about John Green over Tumblr and I really wanted to
read one of his books, and to finally
have a copy of one of his books in my temporary possession made me really
happy. Though, if I’m completely honest, I had no idea what the book was going
to be about when I started it.

AnAbundanceofKatherinesis
a story about a boy named Colin who only dates girls named Katherine (and
despite the fact that he acts like he has no life, he has much more of one than
I do). He was a child prodigy and he spent a good portion of the book trying to
come up with a mathematical theorem that could explain and predict
relationships. He does this while he's on a road trip with his best friend, who
is trying to get him over Katherine #19.

This books was an interesting read, I'll say that much.
From what people were saying, I was personally expecting a book with a lot of
symbolism and deeper meanings as well as an interesting plot. I was
disappointed.

The book is written in third person narrative, from the
perspective of Colin. Since the bookisfrom the perspective of a child
prodigy, the reader gets a relatable perspective while also seeing some
thoughts that most normal people wouldn't think about. All of the main
characters are very well developed. The books paints a fairly clear description
of them and it doesn't take long for their personalities to be revealed. Also,
many of these characters are dynamic, meaning that they change over the course
of the book. I'd give examples, but as River Song always says,spoilers.

The plot started and ended interestingly enough, but the
centre of the story was where it got boring. I caught myself starting to skim
over the pages and Istillunderstood what was going on.
Despite how well written it was, the plot still managed to slow down and crawl
along the ground for a while before picking up once again.

I
probably should mention that this book, as well as what I’ve heard about Green’s
other books, is very humourous. This is probably what kept me reading the book
to the end. I love books that can make me grin or laugh, and this book does
exactly that.

Overall, I'd giveAnAbundanceofKatherinesa 3.5 out of 5. I enjoyed it, yes,
but I won't be coming back to reread it. For what it's worth, it is very well
written. I just happened to have a lapse of interest halfway through the book.
I still have high hopes for John Green's other books, such astheFaultinOurStars, which I plan on reading
before the film comes out. I'll let you know what I think of it once I get my
hands on a copy. I would recommend this book to people who want a break from
fantasy books and want to read something that makes at least some sense. And I’d
recommend this to the maths nerds who may actually understand some of the
equations mentioned in the book.

Friday, 27 September 2013

Anthony Horowitz has been one of my favourite authors for
the longest time. I've gone through my Riordan and, regretfully, my Stephanie
Meyer phases, but I always come back to the author who had written Alex Rider.

I had high hope for this book when I ordered it (it’s released in America on 1
October), and I have to say, this book does not disappoint. I devoured the book
in less than two days and just wow.

So what is Russian Roulette? This
book is a prequel to the Alex Rider
series, though I would recommend reading through the first five books before
this one due to spoilers. It’s the life story of the contract killer Yasha
(Yassen) Gregorovich from when he was fourteen to when he meets Alex at the end
of Stormbreaker. It starts off in
third person in the prologue before switching over to first person as Yassen
begins to read his diary (which, before you ask, is not written in diary entries).

This book honestly shocked me. I always
knew that Yassen had a rough childhood – I mean, he’s an assassin and clearly
not a newbie. But I never realised how bad it was. The book, despite how
quickly it moves along, is very descriptive without being over the top. It
pulls you into young Yasha’s life (Yasha is Yassen’s real name) and doesn't let
you go until the end. The settings are described very well to the point where
even if one had never been there, they can picture it almost perfectly in their
mind.

The plot itself was brilliant. It’s not often that books make me cry, but this
one managed it within the first 25 pages. It was the perfect backstory for
Yasha/Yassen, describing the hardships and the pain that he went through to get
where he was in Stormbreaker. It
explains almost everything about him that one may have wanted to know. As I
mentioned earlier, the plot does move along pretty quickly since it’s most of
Yasha/Yassen’s life in 400+ pages, but it doesn't detract from any of the
details.

The character of Yasha/Yassen was mentioned in the Alex Rider books, but no detail was really gone into it. This book
is his spotlight. It explains so much about the character in the books and it
has a very developed plot. As a bonus, you also get to meet John Rider, Alex
Rider’s father, for the very first time.

Overall, I’d give Russian Roulette a rating
4.5 out of 5. This book easily made my top ten books, with its illustrative details
and intricate plot. I would recommend this book to anyone ages 14 and up. Maybe
older, depending on their maturity is. A quick warning is that there is a
moderate use of drugs, violence, and mentions of torture in this book, so if
that makes you uncomfortable or is a trigger for you, you might want to avoid
this book. But besides that, I would highly recommend this book to any YA
reader who has read the Alex Rider books
up through the fifth one, Scorpia.

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

I'm not lying when I said that I was very apprehensive about
reading the book City of Bones by
Cassandra Clare. It seemed to fall too much into the whole
supernatural-romance-Twilight genre
and I did not, in any way, want to read yet another
one of those. I picked it up eventually after much pestering from my
friends, and to my great surprise, I loved it.

The City of Bones is a story about a
teenage girl named Clary living in Brookland, New York who seems to be an
absolutely normal person until she starts seeing things that her best friend,
Simon, can’t – specifically, a murder. Her mother disappears, she finds out she
isn't human and is instead a Shadowhunter (Nephilim), and life as she knew it
completely changes. The book ends with a twist that unless you've seen the
movie or someone has spoiled it for you, leaves you sitting there in shock (or
in my case, so frustrated to the point where you nearly threw the book at the
wall).

Despite the fact that this book uses a fairly overused plot
(I'm now starting to see similarities between the plot summary of CoB and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan), it’s well executed. This book
follows fairly true to the original myths of creatures (or Downworlders, as
they’re called in the books), such as vampires, fairies, and werewolves, a nice
change from all these Twilight-esque
books that are finally falling out of popularity. Vampires in this series can’t
go out in the sun and sleep during the day. Werewolves are made up of those
infected with Lycanthropy and they change on the full moon. Fairies aren't
the innocent creatures that Disney makes them out to be. I was pleasantly
surprised when I saw these details in the book, and so I applaud Cassandra for
doing her research.

The thing that struck me the most out of
this book was the societal aspect of it. This book was written in 2007, right
around the time that people started to get riled up about the fact that gays
couldn't get married. This is one of the few books that I've read that actually
includes gay characters and I couldn't be happier about this (other books include Harry Potter and Perks of Being a Wallflower). Many authors (not
naming any names), are insistent in not including characters that have any
differing sexualities, so when I came across the characters Alec and Magnus in this book,
to say I was surprised is an understatement. And it isn't just that she
included the character in the books, but she also included it as a more major
part of the Shadowhunter society (or rather, the way that the Clave was very
much against gays). Going back to my original statement of society, Cassandra also
created a separate society for the Shadowhunters called the Clave, which plays
a huge role in this book. It was a very well thought out idea.

Now onto characterisation. The main
character, Clary, is a very round, dynamic character. She starts the book as a girl
who loved art and didn't always get along with her mum. She ended the book more
independent and with a new perspective of the world around her. The downside is that I have seen this exact character before, both in personality (artistic, sassy, and confused all at the same time), as well as her physical description (ginger hair and green eyes). Besides this, mostly all of the main characters go through a deep change somewhere in this book (or in later books, for the sake of Simon and Alec).

Overall, I'd give the book a 4 out of 5 rating. I like the way it was written and I love the characters. The reason why I won't give it a 5 is because I have seen similar characters and a similar plot line before. If it had been just a bit more original, it would have been even better.